WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:14.000 You can roughly locate any community in the world somewhere along a scale running all the way from democracy to despotism. 00:14.000 --> 00:20.000 One at a democracy end, another somewhere in the middle, and a third... 00:20.000 --> 00:28.000 Let's find out about despotism. This man makes it his job to study these things. 00:28.000 --> 00:39.000 Well, for one thing, avoid the comfortable idea that the mere form of government can of itself safeguard a nation against despotism. 00:39.000 --> 00:53.000 Germany under President Hindenburg was a republic, and yet in this republic an aggressive despotism took root and flourished under Adolf Hitler. 00:53.000 --> 01:01.000 When a competent observer looks for signs of despotism in a community, he looks beyond fine words and noble phrases. 01:01.000 --> 01:11.000 For which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 01:11.000 --> 01:20.000 Many observers have found that two workable yardsticks help in discovering how near a community is to despotism. 01:20.000 --> 01:26.000 The respect scale and the power scale. 01:26.000 --> 01:33.000 A careful observer can use a respect scale to find how many citizens get an even break. 01:33.000 --> 01:42.000 As a community moves towards despotism, respect is restricted to fewer people. 01:42.000 --> 01:54.000 A community is low on a respect scale if common courtesy is withheld from large groups of people on account of their political attitudes. 01:54.000 --> 02:10.000 If people are rude to others because they think their wealth and position gives them that right, or because they don't like a man's race or his religion. 02:10.000 --> 02:19.000 Equal opportunity for all citizens to develop useful skills is one basis for rating a community on a respect scale. 02:19.000 --> 02:25.000 The opportunity to develop useful skills is important, but not enough. 02:25.000 --> 02:37.000 The equally important opportunity to put skills to use is a further test on a respect scale. 02:37.000 --> 02:42.000 A power scale is another important yardstick of despotism. 02:42.000 --> 02:47.000 It gauges the citizens' share in making the community's decisions. 02:47.000 --> 02:55.000 Communities which concentrate decision making in a few hands rate low on a power scale and are moving towards despotism. 02:55.000 --> 03:03.000 Like France under the Bourbon kings, one of whom said, the state, I am the state. 03:03.000 --> 03:13.000 Today, democracy can ebb away in communities whose citizens allow power to become concentrated in the hands of bosses. 03:13.000 --> 03:22.000 What I say goes, see, I'm the law around here. 03:22.000 --> 03:28.000 The test of despotic power is that it can disregard the will of the people. 03:28.000 --> 03:35.000 It rules without the consent of the governed. 03:35.000 --> 03:48.000 Look beyond the legal formalities of an election in measuring a community on the power scale to see if the ballot is really free. 03:48.000 --> 03:57.000 If the citizens can vote only the way they're told, a community approaches despotism. 03:57.000 --> 04:08.000 When legislatures become ceremonial assemblies only and have no real control over lawmaking, their community rates low on a power scale. 04:08.000 --> 04:12.000 T.I.A.! T.I.A.! 04:12.000 --> 04:26.000 In a downright despotism, opposition is dangerous whether the despotism is official or whether it is unofficial. 04:26.000 --> 04:40.000 The spread of respect and power in a community is influenced by certain conditions, which many observers measure by means of the economic distribution and information scales. 04:40.000 --> 04:54.000 If a community's economic distribution becomes slanted, its middle income groups grow smaller and despotism stands a better chance to gain a foothold. 04:54.000 --> 05:07.000 Where land is privately owned, one sign of a poorly balanced economy is the concentration of land ownership in the hands of a very small number of people. 05:07.000 --> 05:12.000 When farmers lose their farms, they lose their independence. 05:12.000 --> 05:18.000 This one can stay on, but not as his own boss anymore. 05:18.000 --> 05:26.000 To the extent that this condition exists throughout a nation, the likelihood of despotism is increased. 05:26.000 --> 05:41.000 In communities which depend almost entirely on a single industry, such as a factory or mine, maintaining economic balance is a challenging problem. 05:41.000 --> 05:57.000 If this condition exists over the nation as a whole, so that the control of jobs and business opportunities is in a few hands, despotism stands a good chance. 05:57.000 --> 06:06.000 Another sign of a poorly balanced economy is a taxation system that presses heaviest on those least able to pay. 06:06.000 --> 06:11.000 A larger part of a small income is spent on necessities such as food. 06:11.000 --> 06:19.000 Sales taxes on such necessities hit the small income harder. 06:19.000 --> 06:32.000 In the days of the salt tax, feudal despotisms were partly sustained by this and other effects. 06:32.000 --> 06:47.000 A community rates low on an information scale when the press, radio, and other channels of communication are controlled by only a few people, and when citizens have to accept what they're told. 06:47.000 --> 06:54.000 In communities of this kind, despotism stands a good chance. 06:54.000 --> 06:59.000 See how a community trains its teachers. 06:59.000 --> 07:06.000 Bear this in mind. Young people cannot be trusted to form their own opinions. 07:06.000 --> 07:15.000 This business about open-mindedness is nonsense. It's a waste of time trying to teach students to think for themselves. 07:15.000 --> 07:20.000 It's our job to tell them. 07:20.000 --> 07:26.000 And when teachers put such training into practice, despotism stands a good chance. 07:26.000 --> 07:35.000 These children are being taught to accept uncritically whatever they're told. Questions are not encouraged. 07:35.000 --> 07:40.000 How can you ask such a question? Have you got a textbook? 07:40.000 --> 07:41.000 Yes, ma'am. 07:41.000 --> 07:45.000 Does it say here that our law courts are always just? 07:45.000 --> 07:46.000 Yes, ma'am. 07:46.000 --> 07:51.000 Then how dare you question the fact. Sit down. 07:51.000 --> 07:54.000 And so we aren't surprised when... 07:54.000 --> 07:59.000 But it must be true. I saw it in this book right here. 07:59.000 --> 08:11.000 And if books and newspapers and the radio are efficiently controlled, the people will read and accept exactly what the few in control want them to. 08:11.000 --> 08:15.000 Government censorship is one form of control. 08:15.000 --> 08:21.000 A newspaper which breaks a government censorship rule can be suspended. 08:21.000 --> 08:31.000 It is also possible for newspapers and other forms of communication to be controlled by private interests. 08:31.000 --> 08:35.000 I thought I told you to kill that story. It'll cost us a lot of advertising. 08:35.000 --> 08:37.000 If that story goes out, I quit. 08:37.000 --> 08:42.000 All right. 08:42.000 --> 08:45.000 What sort of community do you live in? 08:45.000 --> 08:56.000 Where would you place it on a democracy despotism scale? To find out, you can rate it on a respect scale and a power scale. 08:56.000 --> 09:07.000 And to find out what way it is likely to go in the future, you can rate it on economic distribution and information scales. 09:07.000 --> 09:18.000 The lower your community rates on economic distribution and information scales, the lower it is likely to rate on respect and power scales. 09:18.000 --> 09:28.000 And thus, to approach despotism. 09:28.000 --> 09:33.000 What happens in a single community is the problem of its own citizens. 09:33.000 --> 09:37.000 But it is also the problem of us all. 09:37.000 --> 10:06.000 Because as communities go, so goes the nation.